


It's Quiet Uptown

by elemeeple (sinopiasaur)



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Gen, Grief, Musical, mane six are mostly only mentioned, starlight glimmer centric story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 00:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8468026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinopiasaur/pseuds/elemeeple
Summary: Starlight Glimmer is facing the unimaginable.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note: this is all due to a terrible idea I had when I remembered that Twilight wouldn’t outlive her friends. And while this probably isn’t going to happen, it’s sometimes… fun… yeah, fun… to speculate.
> 
> Note: This also isn’t a full story. It’s a description of what happens, interspersed with modified lyrics from “It’s Quiet Uptown” from the musical Hamilton.

Twilight Sparkle lies dead. 

Starlight Glimmer is horrified, bending over Twilight’s body, and collapsing next to her. 

Beyond lies Queen Chrysalis, breathing her last. The alicorn and unicorn had defeated her at last, but at a terrible cost. 

Chrysalis lifts her head to watch Starlight weep, and laughs. _Her laughter beats match up to the starting chords of the Clarkson cover of “It’s Quiet Uptown.”_

Chrysalis sings mockingly at Starlight, but soon the mockery turns to grief at memories of losing… perhaps her first clutch. Or perhaps she’s just selfish about the hive and grieves not being having the chance to regain control of her former subjects. 

Chrysalis: _There are moments that the words don’t reach. There is suffering too terrible to name._

Starlight looks up, tears in her eyes trailing down her cheeks, and glares at Chrysalis. 

Chrysalis rests her head down further. 

Chrysalis: _You’ll hold your clutch as tight as you can, and push away the unimaginable._

With these last words, Chrysalis closes her eyes forever. Starlight takes up the melody, signifying her growing understanding of grief. As she sings, the five ponies left from the Mane Six run into the scene over a hill, and gasp at the sight of Starlight singing with her head on Twilight’s still-warm flank. 

Starlight: _The moments when you’re in so deep, feels easier to just swim down. And so I’ll move uptown, and learn to live with the unimaginable._

Starlight’s friends run to her, but she is inconsolable. 

* * *

Starlight is looking up at a statue in the Canterlot gardens of the castle where Celestia and Luna reside. The far older, perhaps wiser, ailcorns are looking on. 

Flashbacks to when Celestia and Luna keep an eye on Starlight, giving her silent support, and not crowding Starlight when she refuses their company. It’s obvious that Starlight hasn’t forgiven herself for Twilight’s death and believes she doesn’t deserve forgiveness. 

Starlight: _I spend hours in the garden. I walk alone to the store._

Starlight uses an invisibility spell to escape the notice of the Canterlot citizens as she walks the streets, as well as avoiding the mane five who show up looking for her.

Starlight: _And it’s quiet uptown. I never liked the quiet before._

Later, scenes of Starlight walking into the memorial building, accompanied by Spike. The memorial was raised to remember the Princess of Friendship, and Starlight looks up at stained glass representations of the highlights of Twilight’s life. Spike looks up at Twilight in sympathy and sadness. 

Twilight’s cutie mark marks the doors to enter her memorial. 

Starlight: _I take Spike to her memorial every day, the sign of magic at the door. And I pray—that never used to happen before._

Eventually, Starlight starts to forget to draw the cloak. Or perhaps she simply forgets one particularly grief-stricken day. Her prematurely graying mane is striking. 

The unicorn trio that were Twilight’s friends in Canterlot watch Starlight, and sing along with a chorus of Canterlot citizens: _If you see her in the street, walking by herself, talking to herself, have pity._

Starlight sings, looking at a bookstore she passes by: _Twilight, you would like it uptown. It’s quiet uptown._

The unicorn trio, alone: _She is working through the unimaginable._

Starlight walks up the castle steps, pass guards quietly singing as she passes by: _Her mane has gone gray. She passes every day. They say she walks the length of the city…_

Starlight enters a foyer, and her eyes widen as she sees that Trixie and Sunburst are waiting for her. 

Starlight, singing in voice-over: _You knock me out, I fall apart._

Trixie and Sunburst approach Starlight, and they begin to talk, but in silence, as the Canterlot citizens and guards sing in voiceover: _Can you imagine?_

* * *

Fade to the meeting room in the castle that used to belong to Twilight, where the mane six (now including Trixie) and Spike are gathered. Starlight can barely bring herself to look at them. 

As Starlight sings, with constant fades to the faces, sympathetic and sad, of each pony there. 

Starlight: _Look at where we are. Look at where we started. I know I don’t deserve you._

Starlight lifts her head. She looks tired and grieving, but determined.

Starlight: _But hear me out. That would be enough._

Spotlight on Starlight, the rest of the room falling into darkness, with a ghostly Twilight Sparkle fading in next to her. 

Starlight: _If I could spare her life, if I could trade her life for mine, she’d be standing here right now. And you would smile, and that would be enough._

Twilight fades out, and the rest of the room fades back in. 

Starlight: _I don’t pretend to know the challenges we’re facing. I know there’s no replacing what we’ve lost. And you need time._

Starlight gets down from her chair, and faces away from the others. Then she lifts her head, and turns to look at her friends, singing strongly. 

Starlight: _But I’m not afraid. I know who my friends are. Just let me stay here by your side. And that would be enough._

Her friends leave their chairs and circle her, leaning gently. They forgive her, even if she won’t forgive herself. 

* * *

Starlight is now in Ponyville, walking beside Trixie.

The mane six, Spike, and Ponyville citizens: _If you see her in the street, walking by her side, talking by her side, have pity._

Starlight: _Trixie, did you like it uptown? It’s quiet uptown._

Transitions show that Starlight is opening up slowly to the rest of the mane six as well. Including walks in the park, as twilight fades into night, and gradually into dawn again.

Ponyville citizens: _She is trying to do the unimaginable. See them walking in the park, long after dark, taking in the sights of the city._

Starlight, trying to sound brave and recovered, but her voice trails off sadly: _Look around, look around, look around…_

Ponyville citizens: _They are trying to do the unimaginable._

* * *

One day when Starlight is alone in a dream, looking up at the statue back in Canterlot at night under moonlight, Luna appears gracefully and walks up to Starlight, singing softly. The alicorn’s presence reminds Starlight once again that someone else has had to work through guilt as well.

Luna’s words echo Chrysalis’s, but this time the words are gentle, and Starlight is ready to hear them.

Luna: _There are moments that the words don’t reach. There’s a grace too powerful to name. We push away what we can never understand. We push away the unimaginable._

Luna shows the mane six and Spike, standing outside Starlight’s castle, to Starlight. Luna leads Starlight out, and the dream parts into reality. 

Luna: _They are standing just outside. Everypony side by side. They’ll take your hoof._

The mane six, Sunburst, and Spike are smiling, sadly but now Starlight can read their openness, their forgiveness. And Starlight begins to forgive herself. 

Luna, looking at them from a short distance: _It’s quiet uptown._

* * *

Fade to a time much later, where Celestia’s warm voice sings as she’s about to essentially knight Starlight, and Starlight begins to glow and ascend as the Princess of Forgiveness. The mane six and Spike are standing on either side, looking proud. 

Celestia: _Forgiveness. Can you imagine forgiveness?_

Celestia and Luna and the mane six and Spike: _Can you imagine?_

Fade to a scene of ascended Starlight Glimmer helping grieving ponies in assorted ways. 

Chorus of the full cast, including Twilight, minus for now Starlight: _If you see her in the street, walking by your side, talking by your side, forgive yourself._

Starlight, strong and full voice: _Look around, look around!_

Chorus of the really full cast: _You are going through the unimaginable._

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts: Starlight Glimmer starts to help others work through their grief after the meeting room scene, in particular survivor's guilt, which the mane five and Spike also have.


End file.
